The Stuff of Nightmares
by NicktheDragon
Summary: Danny wakes up one morning to find that something horrible is happening to him. He goes to Sam for help and their relationship develops beyond just friends...
1. Chapter 1

The inspiration for this came from a dream I had where I pulled all the skin off my face and it didn't hurt. It was a weird dream... not really a nightmare because I wasn't scared...

Danny Phantom doesn't belong to me. If it did it would probably be a bit more violent and I would have made the ending a bit different...

Anyway, if you find any typos or misspellings please let me know, I'm always looking to improve the readability of my stories.

(ps. I made up the name of the sickness, so don't go looking for it XD )

CHAPTER 1

Danny woke up, stretched, and scratched his cheek. 'Why does my face itch so much?' he thought. As he pulled his hand away from his face, he gasped. There, under his short fingernails, were flakes of what looked like his skin. Immediately, his heart started racing. Danny flung himself out of bed and rushed to the bathroom, his footsteps echoing in the morning quiet. Once in the bathroom, his heart nearly skipped a beat as he looked in the mirror. The skin on his left cheek had three shallow gouges in it, the underlying layer was a slightly darker shade of pink. That wasn't the worst. The edges of the marks looked loose, and his skin itched all over his face, like it wanted to crawl right off of him. Reaching his hand up, he gently tugged at one of the edges of a gouge, the skin peeled away easily in a strip nearly half the size of his palm. He freaked out. He stared at himself in the mirror, eyes huge and pupils dilated. Somehow, pulling off that strip of skin hadn't hurt, in fact it was a bit relieving, making the itch lessen. He picked at his cheek a bit more, pulling the first layer of skin off his cheek, then a knock came at the door.

"Danny! Would you hurry up in there, I have to take a shower before going to school you know!"

It was Jazz. Danny had to think fast, he grabbed the cup of water next to the sink, opened the toilet lid, and proceeded to make awful retching noises while pouring spurts of water into the toilet to complete the mental image for his sister.

"Uh, never mind Danny! I'll call you in sick today! Bye!" Jazz spurted quickly before rushing downstairs to use her parent's bathroom, she hated the sound of someone throwing up.

Danny almost smirked, the vomiting routine worked every time. Now of course, he had to get past his mom without letting her see his face. Closing the toilet seat, he sat down on it to think.

"Mom?" Danny sniffed, making his voice a bit raspy, "I don't feel good and I threw up this morning, can I stay home from school today?" He shuffled into the kitchen with a blanket wrapped thoroughly around him, covering the left half of his face.

"Oh my! Of course you can sweetheart!" Maddie exclaimed worriedly as she gave her son a light hug, "I heard Jazz calling you in sick, so you just go back to bed and get some sleep. Your father and I will be going on a trip for the next three days, and we absolutely can't cancel it, so you make sure you drink plenty of water and have some nice soup when you get hungry."

"Yes mom." He stated, keeping up the raspy and tired voice while he turned to go back up the stairs. Maddie smiled at his back before heading out the door.

As soon as he got to his room, Danny dropped the blanket and hurried to his phone, hitting the speed dial for Sam. The phone rang twice before she picked it up.

"Hey Danny what's up?"

"Something weird is happening, I need you to call in sick from school today."

"Ok, my parents are on another trip, so you and Tucker can meet me here."

"Uh..." Danny stalled, "I don't think Tucker needs to know, besides wasn't there a math test that he was really looking forward to today?" He knew that Tucker would probably freak out and call his parents, and Danny had a sneaking suspicion that his current predicament had something to do with being half ghost.

"Riiiight, he shouldn't have to miss out on THAT." Sam drawled sarcastically.

"Please Sam?" Danny nearly begged.

"Fine, fine, I won't call Tucker. Just be over here as soon as you can." She hung up.

Danny waited until his parents' van pulled off down the street before going ghost and phasing through the wall. He gasped, after phasing through a thin swath of skin on his right arm sloughed off. He subconsciously brought his hand to the left side of his face and as soon as he touched the itchy, tingling skin, a patch fell off in his hand. Again he panicked and swiftly landed on the ground in the alley behind his house. Obviously being in his ghost form made the situation much worse, so he transformed back and ran into his house to grab a coat and a scarf.

Sam was waiting impatiently on her bed, she checked her watch. 'Danny should be here by now,' she thought, 'What's taking him so long?'

She was broken from her thoughts by a knocking at the front door. That was weird, Danny almost always just phased through her window. When she hurried down the stairs and opened the door, she became even more confused. Danny was standing there wearing a rain jacket and a scarf that was wrapped around half his head. She squinted and peered up to make sure her suspicions were correct. Yup, not a cloud in the sky or a cold breeze in the street. Something weird _was_ going on after all. Danny practically scurried into her house.

"Hey Sam." he said, his voice muffled by the scarf.

"Danny what's going on? And why are you wearing that?" She looked pointedly at his attire.

"Uh, let's head up to your room first." He looked around as though he expected her parents to pop up at any time.

Sam rolled her eyes and led him up to her room, she stood by her bed as he paced back and forth, as if deciding something, finally coming to a stop four feet in front of her. He looked at his shoes. 'What is he doing?' Sam wondered, 'He can't be asking me out, could he? He's way too clueless for that, right?' The thought of Danny asking her out, or maybe hugging her made Sam's stomach flutter. Then he slowly took off the coat and unwrapped the scarf.

She gasped and rushed to him, "Danny! What did this to you?" she nearly yelled, gently grabbing his head and angling his face so she could see his cheek better. She gasped again and let go, putting a hand to her mouth and staring at him with wide eyes, tears threatening to blur her vision. Danny frowned.

"How bad is it?" He asked.

"You can't feel it?" Sam asked in wonder.

"It's really itchy and it feels kinda like air is touching some stuff it shouldn't be touching." He said, reaching up to touch his face.

Sam quickly grabbed his wrist, keeping him from touching what looked like a very nasty, deep wound, "Don't touch it." She stated flatly, willing him to see how serious this was. As she let go of his wrist, she thought that the skin there felt a bit loose, but was too distracted by his face to take much notice.

He seemed to get the point, and headed towards the small mirror on her dresser, peering at his face. Now it was his turn to gasp, it had gotten worse, much worse. What was earlier just a patch where a single layer of skin had been missing, now there was a layered crater in the skin, dipping down to a hole about the size of a nickel. He could see the dark red muscle and tendon of his cheek through the hole. His skin was literally coming off. He stared.

"Danny? Danny? How did this happen?" Sam asked a bit frantically.

Danny sighed and tore his gaze from the mirror to go sit down on Sam's bed. She followed him and sat down beside him.

"Well..." He sighed, "It started this morning..."

After he finished telling her the whole story, he absently scratched his arm, it was beginning to itch there too.

"Danny!" Sam exclaimed, pointing at his arm. The skin there was starting to peel off. Sam took hold of his arm to get a closer look. He blushed slightly as she ran her fingers lightly over his arm and hand, peering closely. "Danny, look at this." She stated, and held up his hand for him to see, spreading his palm out flat. Where there are usually just creases at all the joints of his fingers, there were now breaks in the skin, slightly curled at the edges as if it was peeling itself off slowly.

"That can't be good." He stared at his hand, trying not to focus on the way Sam was sitting so close and touching him.

"No, it's not, we better find out what's going on, I think you're right about it having to do with you being half ghost. We need to get to the Ghost Zone and find someone who knows what's going on."

Danny nodded, "My parents aren't home right now, so it'll be no problem getting into the Ghost Zone, but how will we get to my house without being noticed, I can't use my ghost powers..." he trailed off, looking dejected.

"We'll just take all the alleys and stuff, I've snuck off to your house enough times without being caught by my parents when they were out looking, I know a good route." Sam reassured him, 'and if we get seen, I can always turn the tables on his invention, the fake-out make-out' she thought, smiling inwardly.

They made their way as quickly as possible along her secrete route. Danny not wearing the jacket and scarf because Sam said they were more likely to be noticed if he was wearing something weird, and she thought that the scarf and the jacket might have made things worse by rubbing against his loose skin.

They had to cross the street a few times, but it was late morning, so traffic was minimum on both the road and sidewalks. Then, as they were about to exit an alley, someone came walking by on the sidewalk. Sam acted quickly, grabbing Danny, shoving him lightly against the wall, putting his damaged right arm by his side so that his hand was on her hip, and covering his left cheek with her hand before locking her lips onto his. Her stomach tingled merrily.

Danny was stunned. Sam was kissing him, his heartbeat sped up. Then he noticed the person walking by glance in their direction and he swiftly closed his eyes, enjoying the moment for just a bit longer until Sam broke the fake-out make-out and whispered, "Is he gone?"

Glancing at the retreating back of the stranger, Danny nodded, secretly disappointed when Sam stepped back away from him and peered around to make sure no one else was coming. His heart was still rapidly beating in his chest and his lips tingled slightly. He had nearly forgotten the irritating itch crawling around under his skin, but now it was back and he was forced not to dwell on the fake-out make-out for long. He had to fix what was happening to him.

The duo ran into no other obstacles on their way and were able to start up the Specter Speeder and whoosh out into the Ghost Zone. Sam was driving, of course, and Danny directed her to the land of the Far Frozen. Maybe Frostbite would know what was going on.

When they arrived, Frostbite greeted them cheerily, but soon became grave as they showed him Danny's situation. It turned out that Frostbite had never seen anything like that before, but he did know of someone who might be ably to help.

"Go to the Ghost Doctor, Dr. Shpytz, he might be able to fix you up. He knows everything there is to know about ghost sicknesses." Frostbite said.

They thanked him and went off in the direction of the hospital, it was right where Frostbite said it was. The hospital floated in it's spot in the Ghost Zone, a huge building with an arched entrance containing a sign that read "Emergency Entrance Here" Danny didn't see another entrance, so assumed that Ghosts never made appointments.

"It's a good thing that Tucker isn't here." Danny said as Sam parked in front of the steps to the entrance, she nodded silently.

Inside the waiting room there was a ghost who was sneezing hysterically. The two humans sat in some chairs opposite the sneezing ghost. They didn't have to wait long. A tall ghost with a kind face wearing scrubs entered the room.

"Who's turn is it next?" He asked in a friendly manner, not at all menacing.

The sneezer, as Danny now thought of him, held a tissue to his nose and pointed at Danny, "He's worth tha meh." the sneezer said, before promptly sneezing again.

The doctor turned to Danny and Sam, "What's your name, son?" he asked.

"I'm Danny, and this is Sam." Danny said, pointing to Sam as he said her name.

"Ah, you're not from around here are you?" the doctor looked a bit more closely at the teens.

Sam looked nervously at the sneezer and back to the kind face of the doctor, "No sir," she said, "can we speak somewhere more private?"

"Of course, please come this way." As he showed them through a door, he caught sight of Danny's face and a worried frown replaced his friendly smile.

Once Danny was seated on an examining table and Sam was seated in a chair next to him. Dr. Shpytz began poking and prodding at Danny, his frown deepening as he plucked at the edges of the hole in Danny's cheek and the cracks at his joints. He had Danny take off his shoes and found several layers of skin rubbed off of the bottom of his feet. Finally, he went back to Danny's face and stuck his gloved finger against the muscle showing on Danny's cheek, sliding his finger under the edge of the loose skin and tugging gently outward. Danny could feel his skin peel away from his muscle as cold air swept into the pocket formed by the doctor's finger. Sam must have seen this too, because she gasped and covered her mouth with both hands, looking quite scared. Danny tried to give her a reassuring smile, but it faltered as the doctor removed his finger and Danny's skin sort of sagged back into place. He could still tell that it was no longer attached to his cheek muscle.

The tense silence was broken, "Well," Dr. Shpytz stated, "He's got Slupstygmetrigof."

Danny and Sam looked at him blankly.

"It's where the skin separates from the muscle and becomes itchy and painful. If not treated soon enough it will cause the victim to scratch off all their skin," He paused briefly, "And at that point it will never grow back." He flipped through a book that had been sitting on the counter, and showed them a picture of a ghost who presumably had the same sickness. It was awful. The ghost looked like he had been run over by a lawn mower. All the skin on one side of his face had been completely stripped away and his lidless eye stared hauntingly at the camera. His lips were gone and white teeth gave him a two-face look.

Sam and Danny looked at each other, then back at the doctor. "Can he be cured?" Sam asked tentatively. She hated to imagine what it would be like for Danny to have to live as a ghost for the rest of his life, because surely a human can't survive in that condition for long.

"Yes."

They sighed in relief.

"… but the treatment will be quite painful."

Danny winced. He had to grip the edge of the table hard, all this talk about his skin was making it itch more. He almost felt like ripping it off, almost. Sam looked at the doctor and nodded her head, then looked at Danny, her eyes pleading for his confirmation. He couldn't resist her. He looked at Dr. Shpytz.

"I'll do it."


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

The doctor had given Danny a shot and explained to them what would happen. He told them that the itching would get progressively worse and that he might feel some soreness as well. He also told Danny to not remove any more skin until he could see the new skin grown on his muscles through the hole in the dying skin of his cheek, then to remove all of the sloughing off skin.

After another quick run through the alleys of Amity Park, Sam and Danny were sitting in Sam's basement on opposite sides of her huge comfy couch, trying to figure out what to tell Tucker and Jazz. The whole process would be over by the time Danny's parents got home, but that was three whole days, and it's hard to make up a good excuse for that long.

"Danny, we should probably just tell Jazz and Tucker, they'll understand what's going on." Sam suggested.

"Maybe Tuck would, but Jazz would just pester me about everything." He made a disgusted face.

Sam had to agree with that one. Jazz was nice and all, but she could be a little too protective of her younger brother.

"Then tell Tucker. I don't see what the big deal is, you guys share everything anyways!" Sam exclaimed.

"Fine." He replies and looks around, "Phone?"

"Here." She hands him the phone and starts looking through the shelves of movies, searching for one that she hadn't seen in a while and wouldn't mind seeing again right then. She skipped right over her zombie section, that would be a bad idea with Danny in the state he's in. As she continued to browse, she listened in to Danny's side of his conversation with Tuck, who had apparently just gotten out of school, if the clock she just glanced at was correct.

"Hey Tuck... yeah, it's actually some kind of ghost sickness... no... yeah... well, all my skin is kinda falling off, but I got the cure. It'll be a few days until I'm back to normal... ha ha very funny Tuck... I'm hanging at Sam's, you wanna come watch a movie?... yuck, not right now... o.k. … yeah, see yah later... bye." The beep nearly echoed in the large room when Danny hung up.

"What was the 'yuck' about?" Sam asked, not taking her eyes off the DVDs.

"Oh, Tuck said the only movie he wanted to watch right now was Dawn of the Dead." Danny made another disgusted face, and Sam chuckled.

"Oh, here's a movie I haven't seen in a while! Time Bandits!" Sam exclaimed exitedly, brandishing the movie above her head.

Danny got up and took the movie from Sam, "What's it about?"

"Oh, just some guys sort of time traveling and stealing stuff. It's weird but good." Sam took the DVD back and placed it in the player, grabbing the remote on the way back to the couch.

Leaning back into the soft cushions, Danny sat back to watch the movie, then his stomach growled loudly and he looked up at Sam, embarrassed.

"Right, I completely forgot about lunch, I'll be right back." Sam bolted out of the basement and was soon back with an armful of snacks.

The movie really was very weird, Danny soon discovered. He also discovered, about halfway through the movie, that the itching in his skin was getting worse, much worse. At first it was just a dull tingling, but then it developed into a full blown itch across his entire body. He was having a harder and harder time concentrating on the movie. By the fight scene at the end, he was in agony. The itching had become a throbbing pain-itch like having hives and chicken pocks at the same time, he was practically curled up in the fetal position, trying hard to not scratch or cry out.

Sam shut the TV off once the movie was over and looked over at Danny. She saw him trembling, curled up. "Danny?" She quickly scooted across the couch and put her hand on his shoulder, "Danny, you o.k?" It was mostly a rhetorical question as he was clearly not o.k. but she needed to see if he could respond.

"N-no." Was his feeble reply, "Hurts."

Bursting with worry for her best friend, Sam did something she was sure that she would regret later. She got off the couch and walked around Danny, pushing him up away from the corner he had been leaning on, and slid herself into that corner, pulling Danny down across her. 'I'm so going to get teased for this later' she thought as she put her arms around the halfa and comforted him in a silent hug.

Danny couldn't quite believe what was happening, really, he couldn't. He was in so much pain that he wasn't sure if he was dreaming or not when he felt Sam's arms around him. He was nearly certain that he was dreaming when he felt her fingers running through his hair, making the pain subside a bit. He felt tired. The drumming of a heartbeat lulled him into sleep.

Sam half hoped that he wouldn't remember this later, and half hoped that he would. She continued to run her fingers through his hair, feeling him relax a bit into her hold. His trembling eventually stopped and she could feel his steady breathing and heartbeat. It was amazing, she smiled at the feeling of him asleep on her, so vulnerable. She relished the experience with the knowledge that she would have to move before she too fell asleep. Sam closed her eyes, meaning to just rest for a moment, breathe in his scent and listen to his heartbeat.

Danny opened his eyes to see Sam's TV room. He remembered watching a movie, then being in excruciating pain, then... oh my. He looked down and saw that Sam's arms were indeed around his torso, and as he moved his head up, he felt her chin resting on his hair. He froze. Was she awake? What exactly happened last night? And why the heck does this feel so right? These questions flashed through his mind, but he decided to ignore them after realizing that Sam was still sound asleep. He chuckled to himself, 'I wonder if she'll act all awkward if she knows I'm awake?' he thought, and closed his eyes while settling back down against her. He was too tired to wake her himself and wanted to enjoy their closeness a little longer.

Her first impression was that she had nodded off. She glanced at the clock and found out that she was horribly wrong. 'I just slept all night cuddled up on the sofa with my best friend!' part of her brain screamed at her. She thought fast and decided that Danny was still asleep and she could still slip out from under him without him noticing. Of course she was wrong.

As soon as she stirred, Danny whispered "Mornin'." Sam froze, but quickly regained her composure. She couldn't allow Danny to think that he had caught her off guard. She was the steady voice of reason in their little gang, after all, and couldn't be seen as weak. Ever. So she stretched her arms and patted his head.

"You feeling better this morning Danny?" she asked him, and smiled when she heard no quiver in her voice.

Danny was speechless for a moment, he was sure that Sam would find their situation at least a bit awkward, unless... no, she couldn't feel the same way... could she? Then he remembered that she had asked a question and that it was usually polite to answer such inquiries.

"Uh... yeah?" he nearly sputtered out. 'Damn' he thought, 'I totally blew that one.'

Sam gently pushed him off her, being careful to not rip any of the loose skin on his back, "Then you can get up for breakfast." she stated, smirking. 'This is so awkward, this is so awkward!' she practically screamed in her head.

They walked in a sort of awkward silence up the stairs to the kitchen. Sam refused to make it awkward looking for her, so held her head high and strolled in a relaxed manner. Danny wasn't so good at hiding his feelings at that moment. He was almost shuffling and glanced at Sam every few seconds nervously. He couldn't tell what she was thinking and it was bothering him more than usual.

Breakfast was an uneventful event where the munching of cereal was followed by a slurp of milk, and then more munching.

Sam finally broke the silence, "Your face looks better." she commented, trying not to stare at Danny for too long.

"Really?" he looked at his wavy reflection in the stainless steel refrigerator, it did look a little better.

"Yeah, I think the skin is starting to grow back." she said, looking back down at her empty cereal bowl, "You should go check it out in a mirror."

He nodded and got up, dumping his empty bowl in the sink and heading off to the first floor bathroom. When he peered at his reflection he noticed that it did indeed look better. There was now a shiny new thin layer of skin forming in the hole in his cheek. Poking at it with his finger, he lifted up the bit of cheek that the doctor had lifted up before, and found that the new layer had formed under there as well. He assumed it was everywhere, but could see that it still wasn't sufficient enough yet to pull off all the old stuff. It was still a bit itchy and he wanted it off. Danny looked at his face and thought about washing it, but then grimaced at the idea of having water trickle its way under the skin on his cheek and slosh around in the little pocket there, yick. He left the faucet off and wandered back down to the basement to play a video game.

Sam left him to his own devises in the bathroom and headed up to her own personal bathroom to take a shower and changer her clothes. She felt a bit guilty, knowing that Danny couldn't do the same thing, but pushed her guilt aside for some much needed cleansing.

He was beginning to itch all over again by the time Sam came down to join him in playing the video game. It annoyed the heck out of him and he started just randomly killing everything in sight in the game. His eye would twitch whenever an area became particularly itchy, and he would violently kill another creature in the game. Sam sat down beside him and watched the game for a bit, taking note of the random violence, she watched Danny out of the corner of her eye and saw the twitching. 'I bet it's itching again.' she thought.

"Hey Danny, if it's itchy have you tried rubbing it where it itches?"

He looked at her for a moment, allowing a monster to slay his little game character. Big letters spelling GAME OVER flashed on and off the screen. "No." he replied, and tried rubbing his arm gently. "Doesn't work." he then stated, frowning. Suddenly he dropped the controller on the floor, "Uggh!" he shouted. "I hate this stupid itching!"

Sam nearly jumped in surprise at his outburst, and immediately felt a pang of pity for him. Her best friend was in pain and she could do nothing to help him, it was a horrible feeling. She looked at him with concern showing all over her face, "How about we watch another movie? Your pick." she talked quietly and calmly, hoping to sooth him a bit with just her voice. It seemed to work as he nodded and slunk off to choose a movie.

Danny felt like shit. He didn't want to watch an adventure movie or a comedy, he wanted something so fluffy and happy that it would probably blow Sam's brains out. But he felt like he couldn't care less at that moment and grabbed one of the kid movies that sat in the corner of the shelf, covered in several years worth of dust. Without bothering to wipe the dust off, he opened the case and plopped the movie into the DVD player and poked the play button, collapsing on the couch shortly after.

Sam guffawed. Of all the things to watch, he chose Wallace and Gromit? She stared, horrified, at the screen. Her mother used to watch this with her when she was five! As the cheery music introduced the cheery characters in their cheery colored house, Sam could do nothing but stare. Even the rats in the basement were cute and cheery. It was terrifying, but she found that she couldn't look away.

They sat through the entire DVD of Wallace and Gromit. Danny felt better watching the humorous characters, and after the second episode he began to feel drowsy and promptly fell asleep. Growing all new skin takes a lot out of a person. Sam, on the other hand, felt like she had just been scarred for life. It was so freakin' happy. Too. Much. Happiness. She couldn't take any more and with a quick glance at Danny telling her that he was asleep, she turned the TV off and went to find that nice dark book that she had been reading.

Danny awoke to find that he had fallen completely over and was now draped across most of the couch. He suddenly missed the feel of Sam's arms around him and scanned the room, finding the object of his thoughts relaxing in a chair nearby with a book. She looked up and raised an eyebrow. 'Am I drooling or something?' he thought, and hastily wiped his mouth. Yup, he had been drooling in his sleep. Great. Sam snorted in laughter as he slowly hoisted himself up into a sitting position. He wondered if his skin was grown back enough now. He checked the clock, he had slept right through lunch and it was nearing dinnertime.

"Tuck called," Sam said, shocking Danny out of his thoughts. "He wanted to know how you were doing, I told him you were doing fine."

Danny nodded, not sure what to say.

"You are doing o.k. aren't you?" she asked.

He nodded again, "Do you think my skin had grown back enough yet?"

Sam looked at the clock, "Probably," she put a bookmark in her book and walked over to Danny, peering at his face for a moment, "Yup, looks like it."

"Yes!" Danny practically yelled, sliding off the couch and nearly bouncing into the basement bathroom.

Sam almost laughed, he looked so cute when he was happy! She quickly became sober however when she remembered that she would never be able to confess her feelings for him, she wasn't strong enough. For all her outward strength, she wouldn't be able to do it. She'd just have to make due with being happy that he's happy. She sighed in sadness. Then she heard Danny sighing in relief from inside the bathroom and imagined him taking off his skin, everywhere, and involuntarily blushed as she tried desperately to shove that particular image from her mind. 'No naughty thoughts Samantha' she berated herself and took a deep breath to get rid of the lingering blush.

Of course it returned full force as Danny emerged from the bathroom, without his shirt on, looking a bit sheepish. She thanked whoever was watching over her that he was currently looking at the ground and not at her. His skin was smooth and brand new, still a bit thin over the muscles that he'd been developing from ghost fighting. He may have not been buff, but damn was he good looking.

"Uh... Sam, I can't seem to reach this last little bit..." he said nervously, turning around and pointing at a patch in the middle of his back. He was tense all over. The discovery that this brand new skin was highly sensitive was putting him on edge. He was almost afraid of having Sam touch him, afraid that she'll notice how much he is attracted to her, afraid that she'll reject him, afraid of losing his best friend. He braved her touch only because that last bit of skin on his back was really irritating, and possibly because deep down inside, he really did want her to touch him.

She nearly had to hold her breath as she got closer to Danny, if it was possible, he looked even more beautiful from up close. Sam reached out and placed her fingers on the edge of the strip of flesh. It came off quite easily, the underside was a bit sticky, which was gross. She tossed the strip into the garbage nearby.

"Thanks Sam." Danny let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. That wasn't so hard, she didn't even have to really touch his new skin.

"Wait." Sam said, halting all of Danny's relieved thoughts, "There's one last layer..." she trailed off as she brought her hand back up.

Danny gulped quietly, she was going to have to touch him this time. He managed to hold himself together as her fingers descended upon the edge of that last layer, applying slight pressure to make sure she got all of it, she slid her fingers down the middle of his back, pulling the patch of skin off. He couldn't take it, the feeling of her fingers sliding across his sensitive new skin sent a shiver down his spine. She saw it, the muscles in his back rippling down in one fluid motion. She dropped the piece of skin, forgetting about it entirely as she gently placed her hand on his back again. She heard him heave a sharp intake of breath and felt him shudder under her hand.

He knew that it was now or never. Do or die. He turned around and grabbed Sam to him, pressing her body against his, and kissed her.

Then he let go and took a step back, waiting for her reaction. He looked into her eyes and saw that they were slightly dilated, a good sign perhaps? His body still tingled and he wanted to touch her again. She granted his wish, taking hold of his waist and his hair, Sam drew him down to her again and kissed him more thoroughly. Endorphins flooded through his brain, he couldn't think, and quite frankly, didn't want to. Sam ran her hands down his ribcage, causing him to shudder once again, then she broke off the kiss, smiled at him, and said "I guess we were both a bit clueless."


End file.
